Go Lance Go!

The TdF (Tour de France) is taking place at the moment. Admittedly, I wasn't paying much attention to it since Lance retired. But now that he is back, and kicking ass, I'm glued to the TV and web streams. I really admire his work ethic. Should be a great show over the next several weeks!

Day 2 of the Week from Hell and things are going good. Bit of a hiccup this morning when I arrived at the pool on campus super early only to find they changed their hours without notifying anyone. Apparently on Tue/Thurs they don't open until 11am now. No worries, changed into my running gear and hit the treadmill for a run.

I hoping the t-showers hold off until after I get my bike workout in. Tonight's focus during the ride will be a 30 minute tempo effort.

Not much else to report...just focusing on training.

Big Week

I have piled on a lot on my plate this week to overcook things a bit. Sat down last night for 30 minutes to visualize how this week is going to play out and to get my head in the right space to achieve my goals. I find it important to get psyched for big weeks like this one and to set realistic goals of what you hope to achieve. It is equally important to let loved ones know what you have planned and the potential "crankiness" the might ensue due to fatigue and/or hunger!

Friday evening I had a great chat with my friend super-star triathlete friend Katie Frauts to go over my swimming. I was starting to panic a bit having not been in the water as much as I would have liked the past two weeks. She gave me some great workouts/ideas to implement in my schedule as I try to do a swim focus block over the next little bit.

Yesterday I had a 22km run which was my best training run to date. Running is definitely my achilles tendon so I am excited to see improvements in that category this year.

Overall things are coming together during this last month of training. If I can stick to the schedule I feel confident I'll have a great race at the Calgary 70.3.

In other news, Mel and I are "negotiating" an Ironman race for 2010! One of my goals in life is to try as many of the different Ironman races throughout the world. So we are discussing possible destinations and the timing of them. Stay tuned for the results on that one.

Happy Eino Leino Day my friends! (Finland)

Putting the head down...

Last week wasn't a stellar week of training with the weekend being a total write-off. I *thought* I had the flu but it turned out to be super bad allergies. I've never allergy problems until about 4-5 years ago and each year they seem to get worse. I was out of commission Fri - Sun...missed the big BBQ in the park and all my workouts. Oh well, I can't change the past but can influence my future.

The pool re-opened on campus today which is great considering I haven't been in the water since Chinook! I have written in a few extra workouts this month to get back into the swimming groove.

Cycling is feeling relatively good as I have been doing it 6x week. I have gotten my commute to/from work down to 95 minutes round trip. This extra bit of cycling is definitely paying off. The first month of so of doing this was a struggle across the board. My legs felt tired for my other workouts...but things are slowly getting better.

Running is feeling good and will fine-tune that this month with some more key workouts.

This month is it...last bit of dedicated training for the Calgary 70.3. The next two weeks involve a little bit of "over-reaching" with the hope I come out a little stronger on the other side of recovery. The Canmore Triathlon is shortly after that which will be a great tune-up race for 70.3. After that, another half week of peak training followed by a taper into the Big Show.

I am super excited to be racing Calgary 70.3 as it appears everyone and their dog(s) are racing. It'll be great see some peeps I haven't seen in a while since the move back east and to meet some others for the first time.

I haven't made any plans for after the Calgary 70.3 other than the Corporate Challenge 10km in Sept. Been thinking about doing a Fall Half-Marathon but we'll see. Either way I am scaling back training for a bit to take a mental/physical break. But for now, it is head down and get the f@cking work done!

In other news, Mel and I are out $1000 on a down payment on a custom sectional couch we ordered back on May 2nd. We went with a "local" business, with several shops throughout southern AB, and were told expect it in 6-8 weeks. 8 weeks were up last week and when we called to inquire where our purchase was, the owner of the store said around July 15th. Mel being an auditor and me, a web programmer, we both pay attention to detail and are finicky about deadlines.

Mel told her it was unacceptable as we were *promised* a couch during the 6-8 weeks and was part of the reason we ordered through them, outside of trying to support local businesses. She said she would contact the manufacturer they order through and get back to us.

Four days later, and 3 voice-mails left by us we hear no word from them. We go down to the store front earlier this week only to see the store went into receivership!!! The next day I call all the locations throughout Alberta but are not able to reach anyone. I contact the manufacturer directly to see if they even got the order but I can't reach anyone there either! I left several voicemail with those guys and my next move is to show up on their doorsteps on Friday to see if the even exist. Meanwhile, I am also trying to reach the firm in charge of selling off the store's assets. Eventually I reach the gentleman and inquire what is going on. Basically he gave me one option:

1.) Wait around for the next three weeks and see if the owner calls you about your couch. They are *apparently* working hard to satisfy existing customer's orders. If they contact you, then you would obviously have to pay them the other half required for the sectional BUT would be responsible for figuring out your own way of delivering it home. Originally, the delivery was free!

Getting our money back will not be happening...for us or any other customer as the secured creditors come first and even they won't be paid off in full. But he did invite me down on July 15th (does that date look familiar?) to buy some of the stuff they are selling!

For the most part, I am pretty easy going and can let a lot of shit roll off my back. But at that moment, if were possible to reach through the phone receiver and grab someone by the throat I would have. After a brief pause, I replied "Yeah, but I am still out of pocket $1000 of MY money and I also don't have a couch".

After that phone call I was ripping mad...still am. As a consumer, what protection do we have? We just laid down a $1000 on a custom couch that probably wasn't even ordered...that is our money that we earned. I don't know what grates me more...losing $1000 or the fact the couch probably wasn't even ordered in the first place.

In my opinion that is fraudulent and I am not letting it go.

One option we may have is to call Visa and see if we are somehow protected. If we don't get our money back through them then I am going through legal channels.

Do you know how many Timmy Ho's coffee/tee you can buy with $1000?!?

On a relatively MUCH better note, Mel and I are going to Las Vegas during mid-august for her birthday. Tickets/Hotel are booked - we'll be staying at the Wynn for 4 nights and have secured tickets to see the Cirque Show KA! Both of us have never been to Vegas so it'll be great...I plan on eating & drinking lots...can't wait.

Anyways my friends...thanks for reading!

Long Weekend

Today is my Friday...tomorrow I have an EDO!!!

Mel is not back until late tomorrow night, so after I walk the dogs in the morning I'm off for a nice 4hr spin on the bike. Within that time frame, I plan on doing 90km at, or near race pace following up with a 45 min trot afterwards. By the time I finish I should be good and hungry so the dogs and I are BBQ'ing steaks!

Saturday is another long ride in the AM, followed by running some errands with Mel before we head over to Bowness Park with the dogs for a BBQ with friends.

Sunday is a long swim, followed by a long run.

The pool/gym here on campus is closed for 10 days so I am having to find an alternate pool for the time being.

Last night I ran intervals - 5x 3minute at sub 5km pace. First three went well, on the fourth one things started to get hazy, and on the fifth one, part of my supper came up at the end. I started off fairly well but things started to go down hill about 1:30 into the interval. After that the legs become wobbly, the head light, and I saw stars. At the end, I leaned over and up-chucked a blended mixture of chicken breast, mixed vegetables, and brown rice. I can't even begin to describe what that looks and/or smells like...not like you want to read about that anyways...

Today is a recovery run at lunch and a 90 spin tonight which includes some hill repeats.

Have a good one!

SPDD Week

Mel is away this week in Halifax working for her old employer. They offered her some contract work over the course of the summer so she decided to accept it. She'll be flying back and forth a couple of times throughout the summer.

So that leaves me as a SPDD this week. (Single Parent Doggy Daddy). Each day begins with both Jessie and Sammy waking me up at 6:30 sharp. One stands on my chest while the other offers sloppy kisses that would wake the dead. From there is it up to feed them both and then walk Jessie for 45 minutes to an hour. After that it is back to get ready for work and drop Sammy off to doggy daycare. Since he is still being crate trained we both didn't want to leave him in the kennel all day so daycare it is.

On the way home from work I stop in to pick up him, get home, feed them both, feed myself and take them both out for a "stretch"...aka 1 & 2. After that I get 90 minutes to rip out my workout.

Being a SPDD is tough! Training has definitely taken a back seat for the time being but I make the best with what I have...that has been one of my major goals this season for training.

Last night I got out for a 90 minute ride. The wind was gusting pretty bad in our area so I wasn't hitting the highways for a ride. Also didn't want to hit the trainer so I opted to ride around the neighborhood. I eventually got brave and hopped on the new outer ring road, which isn't opened yet. I cranked out 2x 20 minute tempo efforts. With the wind I was speeding along at 55km/h - 63km/h and when I would reach one end of the road and have to turn around into the wind I dropped to 20km/h - 24km/h.

It was quite fun riding a highway with absolutely no traffic! Good thing too because I was getting blown all over the road.

Today I have a 40 minute easy run at lunch and then a 60 minute interval run tonight...after I walk the dogs.

Happy Trails!

Chinook Olympic Race Report - 2009 (#641)

The tale of this particular race started the night before the actual race. While testing out my gear, I noticed some odd noises coming from my bike in certain positions. I rode and rode and rode the bike on Friday night to try and troubleshoot the issue but could not figure it out. Later that night as I was packing up the CRV, I was removing my front wheel when I noticed two things:

1.) My front race wheel had a slight wobble in it

2.) The axle on the bike wheel had actually come unscrewed a fair bit - which in turn was causing the weird noises. I tighten as best as I could by hand and called my buddy Mark to ask him about it. He pretty much said I shouldn't ride on the wheels until I can get them professionally looked at.

I was pretty bummed at this as these were my race wheels! So I hauled out my training wheels and cleaned them up a bit before attaching them to my bike. Note, I still had my winter trainer tires on them so they were pretty flat. It was getting late and I didn't not want to spend the time to switch out the rubber.

I was in bed at a reasonable hour and slept pretty good. Woke up at 5:45am and tried to eat breakfast but could only stomach a slice of peanut butter toast. After a quick kiss to Mel and the dogs, I was off to drive to the south part of the city to Midapore Lake where the race was situated.

There were definitely some nerves present when I rolled into the race site area and saw all the fit people - I'm so going to get my ass kicked today I thought. I hadn't spent much time mentally preparing for this race which can be a good and bad thing. I guess I didn't think too much about it so as to not put too much pressure on myself.

Anyways, when I got into transition shortly after 7:00am all the racks had been pretty much taken up. I found a spot way at the back to get set up in. I could tell the person to the right of my bike, on the rack, was a bit of a newbie to racing because they were taking up way too much space on the ground in the front of their bike with their gear. I asked the people who were around the immediate area if this was their transition area but all said no. So I slide their items aside a wee bit to jam my stuff in there.

Ran into Keith at some point in transition and had a brief chat. Saw Susie too and spoke to her while I was stealing some of her sunscreen. Not long after that everyone was getting kicked out of transition so I gathered up what I needed for the swim and booked'er down to the beach area to watch the Half-Ironman swim start.

Down at the beach I ran into my buddy Scott, who by the way, snapped a ton of pictures of me racing which was a super nice thing to do! Thanks buddy!

At one point I heard my name shouted out and it was Jenna! It was the first time we had an opportunity to meet. We chatted briefly like old friends before she rejoined Susie's Father to watch for Susie/Keith during the swim.

Near the end of the Half-Ironman swim we were able to get into the water for a warm-up. I got a good 10 - 15 minute warm-up in before heading back to shore to line up for the swim start.

I decided to start at the font & far left to avoid the some of the swim start chaos. The gun went off at 9:15am! I ran into the water and dove in to swim hard for about 200m.

During this time I am swimming just to the outside of the main group trying to find a suitable pair of feet to draft off of. Eventually I found a set moving at a good pace so I cut into the pack and latched on!

I ended up drafting off this woman's feet off & on throughout the entire swim. Sometimes I was right there on them while other times I would lose her by about a metre or two. Overall the swim wasn't very comfortable. I was having trouble regulating my breathing. I simply could not get into a rhythm.

After the first lap, we had to run out of the water and around a buoy on the beach before beginning lap two. My draft had gotten a little ways ahead of me at this point so I took this time to basically sprint on shore to catch up to her again as she rounded the buoy.

Of course, as soon as my face hit the water to start lap two I was close to hyper-ventilating. I managed to stay with her until the first turn after which I started to lose her again and was swimming on my own. By the last turn into the second lap of the swim, things finally started to come around and I was in a rhythm and feeling strong. I started catching my draft again but never quite got it before the swim was over.

I ran up onto shore and decided to take advantage of the wetsuit strippers. We had a buggar of a time trying to get my wetsuit off because it was caught my watch. In retrospect I just should have headed back into transition and taken off the wetsuit myself to save time.

Swim time: 24:46

T1 was pretty quick and I was out onto my bike before long. Immediately I started press the pace and paced a couple of people on the way out of town. When I turned left onto 22x I was immediately slapped in the face with a brutal headwind. My speed dropped dramatically so I switch out of the big chain ring and decided to spin as fast as I could in high/lower? gears.

I could barely make out another rider way off in the distance and thought there is no way I am catching anyone.

Got into my aerobars and just did the best I could on the way out.

My heart rate monitor stopped working during the swim so I was going on pure feel today.

There were a couple of small climbs on the way out to the turnaround and it was on these climbs when I noticed I was starting to close the gap on some people ahead of me.

Just before the last hill, before the turnaround, I was within range of one guy but decided to wait until we hit the climb to pass him. After the turnaround we had a nice wind at our backs so it was 40km/h + the whole way back into town. I passed a few more people shortly after the turnaround.

Getting close to town I was catching this one fellow...when he saw me coming he picked up the pace and so I was chasing him down for several kms. He wasn't going to relent and I was determined to keep pushing him. It was an epic battle and I'm sure we were both having fun out there.

Eventually I was able to close the gap just before a hill, and again, waited until we started to climb before I passed him. From there I didn't let up on the gears and kept pressing the pace. He hung far enough back to be legal, but he wasn't letting me go either!

With a km to go to transition I dropped gears and started to spin it out. He passed me and I decided to let him have the lead as I wasn't interested in racing back to transition with a 10km run coming up.

Bike time: 1:04:16

We rolled into transition together and I was right behind him on the way out on the run. Our pace was fairly quick but he was already starting to pull away. I knew I was getting dropped here as my legs didn't feel too snappy. I haven't been diligent in doing my t-runs/brick workouts so I knew this was going to be a weak point for me in the race.

Overall the run wasn't too bad although I started to fade really badly the last 2km but managed to keep from getting passed within that time. I had to walk up the last hill and walked through 3 aid stations during the run.

Run time: 42.24

Overall I came 5/192 and 2/51 in my age group.

I am really happy with my results as they were better than expected. I found my biking is not as bad as I thought but I do need to work on running off the bike more often.

After the race I meet up with Jenna, Dale, Linda, and Susie's Dad to chat for a bit. I was able to see Keith and Susie start the run before I had to jet home to run some errands with Mel.

Later that evening we met up with the gang at Joey's downtown for some drink, food, and laughs. It was great listening to Susie's Dad tell stories about her when she was younger. We'll have to have him back again soon! Jenna is a hoot to hang with with. She is a genuine person and that is part of the reason she is so much fun. We look forward to our next get together with everyone.

Warm-up


Warm-up


The yellow dot/cap in the middle of pic is the girl was I trying to draft off
throughout the race. I am right on her feet in the pink cap.

One Goal

I have a pretty simple goal for Saturdays race...and that is to go all out. Really, it is just a test to see where my strengths and weaknesses currently lie. You train all winter for these races...perform intervals, time-trails, and simulate race conditions but you never truly know where you are at until you actually race.

Outside of my own race, there'll be a few friends racing and cheering tomorrow which makes the day all that much better. I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow and possibly having a few beverages of choice afterwards.

See you at the races!